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Yes.... This couple had stars, but we're wimps. (Banged his head once and retreated to house for the night....). Van / car living is much easier as a single person. No one else to worry, ask, or complain. Need to move location in the night?.... Move!
Adventure is never easy, trials reveal simple joys. Do what best suits your requirements. I do some of everything. Sometimes it works out, sometimes I identify what not to do tomorrow.
I slept in an SUV with two others which wasn't bad. But that was one night to avoid hotel fee for less than 8 hours sleep. Taht is probably the most I'd want to do at my age. As a younger person, I could have had more tolerance for a truck stop with shower stalls and such. Not a lot, but more. I LOVE hotels and even motels. LOVE them. !
I spent the last four nights in my van, as my home is presently occupied by enemy forces.
I think the worst of it, in a suburban setting anyway, is having to be conscious of your surroundings to the point where you have to move frequently to avoid being obvious. No one wants to be startled out of sleep by a knock on the door. The last couple of nights I spent in my own driveway, arriving after the enemy was asleep and departing in the morning well before he would get up. He never knew I was there.
The van is fully equipped as a motorhome, so creature comforts are a consolation at least. But I would not want to do this long-term.
That is REALLY pushing the definition of "living". Living in a car means you are homeless. I can promise you I will never be homeless. I may have to turn to a life of crime, but I'd do that before I was homeless and had to live in a car. And I LOVE my car!!!!
Having grown up with Depression Era parents, I was taught a certain way and now in my old age I don't think I could change what was beaten into my brain as being "the way" if I wanted to. (And I don't.) I may spend extended amounts of time away from home in the winter months, but I will always have my house to come home to. I understand that people can fall on hard times, but when they choose to not have a job and rely on charity and handouts to live, my "would be 102 if he was still alive" father is spinning in his grave at the notion of someone not having a job and paying their own way.
What makes me shake my head even more is people who are dumb enough to be donating money to these lazy bastards. My money is mine. Try to take it. I dare you. LOL!!!
I’m surprised that I missed this before. Since when did living in a car or van equate with asking for charity handouts? There are those who choose to live a carefree life on the road, and those who were forced by circumstances to give everything up and more’s the hell if they lose the car too.
Of those who choose it, some live off savings, some are what’s called digital nomads, and some stop for a few weeks and work a short term job to save up for the rest of the year. Some do volunteer work for a place to stay and food and that makes the money stretch further but I don’t know anyone on the road with resources who begs. I’m sure there are some, just as there are some people who game the system for food stamps but they are thankfully in the minority. I just dropped a load of food off at the food bank the other day and stayed to volunteer so I’m pretty sure I’m not abusing the system and I am thankful every day that I have resources.
As for the truly homeless, I don’t know anyone who set out to be that way. Do you? I once ran into a woman at a park who had just become homeless and someone had dropped her off there and left her with a tent and I remember how she set up a howl. It was chilling and not a thing that I would wish on anyone. I’ve worked with homeless before and the scariest thing about them is how normal they are. In general it came about because of a cascading series of life circumstances that was beyond their control and not being able to rely on family members if anything should happen, either because the family had nothing either or because the relationship wouldn’t bear it. A common theme was medical bills that put people out of a home.
I agree with Stepka. I worked at a homeless shelter and, until then, did not realize how many people worked but didn't make enough to pay rent.
High rents, high costs of child care, rising costs of food. All of these add up. I remember paying $25 a week for childcare. And my first apartment, an efficiency, was $50 a month.
What people have to pay, just to have a roof over their heads, is mind boggling. If you don't have a high paying job or live with other people, I don't see how people are doing it.
Living out of a vehicle is a logical solution for many. This doesn't mean people are begging. There are opportunities nowadays for working from home. Some people are choosing that home to be a vehicle.
^I have a very close family member who chooses to do this in SV. He literally has great managerial/engineer position at a large tech company and had been renting in the area for several years, but he got sick of paying so much and decided to live in a van. With the money he has saved he even bought a place in SF...to rent out. I don't know how long he plans on continuing this but as a single guy, even with a very active social life, he makes it work. And I know he's not alone as I've been reading articles about this kind of thing in SV for many years now.
And as I've said, I believe, on this very forum a few times, I wish I could go back 10 years I would have totally lived out of my car for certain stretches. I worked from home about 50% of the year back then and traveled plenty but it never occurred to me to do the live in my car type of "van life" at the time. Wish I had given it a shot.
In San Francisco, average monthly rent for a 1-bedroom apartment is $3513.
In Anaheim, it's $1840.
In San Diego, it's $1910.
In Seattle, it's $2013. https://www.rentjungle.com/rentdata/
Good news - I guess - is that except for SF, these are slight decreases.
^I have a very close family member who chooses to do this in SV. He literally has great managerial/engineer position at a large tech company and had been renting in the area for several years, but he got sick of paying so much and decided to live in a van. With the money he has saved he even bought a place in SF...to rent out. I don't know how long he plans on continuing this but as a single guy, even with a very active social life, he makes it work. And I know he's not alone as I've been reading articles about this kind of thing in SV for many years now.
And as I've said, I believe, on this very forum a few times, I wish I could go back 10 years I would have totally lived out of my car for certain stretches. I worked from home about 50% of the year back then and traveled plenty but it never occurred to me to do the live in my car type of "van life" at the time. Wish I had given it a shot.
haha not with 2 kids, I would never put my family of 4 in a car to live full time. Now an RV maybe for a month or so could work, and maybe we will do that someday.
haha not with 2 kids, I would never put my family of 4 in a car to live full time. Now an RV maybe for a month or so could work, and maybe we will do that someday.
A number of years ago when my daughters were twelve and fourteen, our family set out on a round the world journey and for large parts of that we lived out of a station wagon and slept in pup tents every night. I will confess that we didn’t do much free camping though as we wanted the bathrooms of campground bathrooms lol. Now I’m sixty and live in a van so it’s possible to adjust and even enjoy it.
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